JOHOR BARU, Feb 21 — It’s a thing of beauty. The buttery shortcrust of the shell, the fat swirls of fresh vanilla ganache, a crown of jammy strawberries with a hint of citrusy yuzu.
You’d reckon such a sophisticated sweet tart to be found in the fancy pâtisseries of Paris or Tokyo, but this is Taman Pelangi in Johor Baru.
Here, the barely months-old Étoile Boutique offers fine French pastries such as tartelettes aux fruits (small fruit tarts) and biscuit de Savoie (an airy sponge cake with a caramelised crust).
More impressively, Étoile Boutique (its name comes from the French word for a star) has managed to solve one of the problems plaguing most pâtisseries — many lack really great coffee — by opening next door to Sweet Blossom Coffee Roaster, one of Johor Baru’s most beloved cafés.
This is not Sweet Blossom’s first collaboration. Some years ago we tasted one of the best watermelon cakes ever courtesy of KimKim, a pop-up baker at the shop. But that was a short-term engagement; Étoile Boutique appears to be a more permanent fixture.
Managed by a sweet-natured Taiwanese lady, the pâtisserie (confusingly, in French, the same word is used for both the pastries and the shops that sell them) has a menu of classics and seasonal specials, all of which can be paired with coffees from Sweet Blossom.
The pâte à choux — heady with pistachio ganache, apricot, pistachio mousse and pistachio praline — is elevated by a flat white made by Ang Yeesiang, the Penang-born owner of Sweet Blossom.
Prefer a filter coffee? Try that with the Baba — perhaps the baba au Cointreau with the orange-flavoured liqueur and sweet yellow pears, or the baba au vin de prunes that is perfumed with plum wine and lightened with a Taiwanese Four Seasons of Spring Tea ganache.
In essence, you may order your pastries at Étoile Boutique and enjoy them at Sweet Blossom with your favourite coffee. A match made in heaven.
Those who know how to respond when life hands them lemons would relish the tarte au citron — a celebration of citrus with lemon marmalade and meringue, lemon almond cream, lemon and kaffir lime leaf mousse, capped with some lime "caviar.”
My suggestion? Chase this with an espresso. Ang makes mine with a Kaiguri AB, possibly one of my favourite Kenyan beans in recent memory.
Farmed by the Mutheka Farmers’ Cooperative Society, this washed processed coffee is stellar as an espresso with its kiwi-like acidity and black currant jam flavour. A juicy body and an after-taste redolent of dark chocolate and black tea.
Besides the Kenya Kaiguri AB, Sweet Blossom also has two other single origin beans on their current roster. We don’t often see coffees from Nicaragua so their Red Catuai varietal from Finca Libre is an unexpected pleasure. These beans, also washed processed, showcase notes of green apple, red dates and caramel.
If you prefer natural processed beans that produce a fuller-bodied brew, then Sweet Blossom’s Kedir Bali from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia ought to be your kind of cuppa. Look out for a hit of blueberries and a bright pineapple-like acidity, with a sweet, honeyed finish.
Rather than a collective like the Kenya Kaiguri AB, this coffee comes from a single producer — apparently a more common occurrence now in Ethiopia since the industry there has opened up.
(Note that the coffee beans are seasonal so the fun comes in asking Ang for recommendations based on what he has in his hopper. Or better yet buy some beans to bring home and try brewing them yourself...)
Whether this is trivia or trivial depends on how much you love coffee or coffee lore (in other words, your mileage may vary), but that is the sheer bonus of having a deep conversation with someone who has been in the industry as long as Ang.
In fact, he reminds me that I have been drinking his coffee for the better part of a decade now when he makes me a Gibraltar, something I rarely see on the menus at cafés these days. It’s perfect with a brioche feuilletée from Étoile Boutique, the robust coffee complementing the juiciness of the macerated fruit.
Served in a 4.5-ounce glass cup, the Gibraltar (named after the iconic angle cut of a Libbey Gibraltar rock glass) is a double shot of espresso with steamed milk.
Which makes it a hot milk coffee not unlike a Spanish-style cortado though the latter is equal parts espresso and milk, thus subtly less acidic. Ang knows I prefer my coffee heavier on the acidity, back when he was still a barista-in-training under Masa Aoki in KL.
So it’s not only the sweetness of the delicate pastries or the soul-awakening effects of the caffeine at play here; it’s also the realisation that entire continents and cultures meet in this small, unassuming space.
The centuries of French pâtissiers passing down their finely-hone craft. The warm hospitality of the Taiwanese, going above and beyond. The improving fortunes of coffee producers in Africa, Central America and South America.
And the story of one Penang boy, finding his vocation 700 kilometres away in Johor Baru — and along the way, love and a family.
In these tough times, we must applaud the ingenuity of small-scale F&B entrepreneurs who never cease in searching for solutions instead of bemoaning their woes.
In collaborating with Étoile Boutique, Sweet Blossom has solved the problem of offering food to their patrons and can now focus on what they do best — which is coffee.
Together, the two businesses might have just inadvertently introduced pastry-coffee pairing — fine French pâtisserie with single origin specialty coffee — to Malaysia, or at least Johor Baru. True, they might not be the first, but they might be the first to do it well.
We can’t be sure. Taste is subjective, after all. What we are certain of is that every morsel of light pâte à choux encourages us to have another cuppa, until it’s a veritable coffee feast.
As Édith Piaf sang, "Non, je ne regrette rien” — No, we do not regret a thing for we are enjoying every last drop.
Étoile Boutique
28, Jalan Maju, Taman Pelangi, Johor Baru
Open Sat-Wed 1pm-6:30pm; Thu & Fri closed
IG: instagram.com/etoile.boutique_p.s/
Sweet Blossom Coffee Roasters
28, Jalan Maju, Taman Pelangi, Johor Baru
Open Sat-Wed 9am-5pm; Thu & Fri closed
Tel: 016-770 5139
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